The invention relates primarily to a detent mechanism for an electrical assembly or an electrical device, collectively referred to below as an electrical assembly. Electrical assemblies are understood to mean terminals, distribution terminals, or other electrical connection devices, fuse holders, etc., as well as switching devices such as protectors, motor protection switches, and the like. Moreover, the invention relates to such an electrical assembly having a detent mechanism.
With these types of assemblies, mounting in a terminal box, distribution box, or a so-called switch cabinet is common. The mounting takes place on or at a support rail or mounting rail provided for this purpose. Such rails have a profile that is provided for detachably mounting (snapping on, snapping off) an assembly or a plurality of assemblies. One example of such a profile is a so-called top-hat profile of a corresponding support rail, referred to as a top-hat profile rail, or top-hat rail for short.
The mounting in each case of an assembly on or at such a support rail takes place by means of a detent profile that is included in the particular assembly, and a detent mechanism that is also included in the assembly. The detent profile is situated on a bottom side of the assembly, and typically includes a fixed detent profile on one side, for example in the form of at least one rigid detent hook, at a distance that is set to the width of the particular support rail, and on an opposite side, an elastic detent profile, for example in the form of at least one elastic detent hook. This type of detent profile is described in DE 20 2010 005 216 U1 titled “Electrical connection device.”
Although the detent profile from DE 20 2010 005 216 U1 has proven suitable in practice, there is still potential for improvement.